"She functions like about a 3-month-old, and one of the very few things that we know she enjoys is being outside, being in the water, feeling the breeze in her hair and in her face, and going over all the bumps," Rick told the Midland Daily News.

The father-daughter duo have been running together for four years and doing triathlons for three. Rich gave up smoking and tobacco and got in shape for Maddy after seeing the look of joy on her face as she was pushed by a runner in a marathon. “I am her legs and she is my heart,” the dad wrote in his blog.